Get Enum from its name. Is this possible?

Question

I have the enum:

public enum Colors { Yellow, Red }

Then I have a string:

String enumName = "Colors";

Is it possible to get an enum instance from the enumName? Something like:

Enum colors = // get enum with name "Colors".

Thank You, Miguel

Answer 1

are you looking for something like this?

using System;
using System.Linq;

namespace Stuff
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string enumName = "Colors";
            string value = "Red";


            var loadedPublicTypes = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().SelectMany(x => x.GetExportedTypes());
            var possibleEnums = loadedPublicTypes.Where(x => x.IsEnum && x.Name == enumName);

            foreach (var e in possibleEnums)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0} is{1} a member of {2}", value, Enum.GetNames(e).Contains(value) ? "" : " not", e.FullName);
            }

        }


    }
    public enum Colors
    {
        Red,
        Yellow
    }
}

Answer 2

You could use a dynamic type and find a variable by name, but you would have to have an instance of all the enums you want to include in your search.

Check out the following post: Getting variable by name in C# .

Answer 3

You need the full name of the enumeration type (eg System.Drawing.KnownColor, System.Drawing , or Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.Colors, Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI ).

Once you have this, you can use reflection to create an instance of the corresponding enum.